Fortinet (FTNT) is encroaching on F5's (FFIV) turf by acquiring Coyote Point Systems, a maker of application delivery controllers (ADCs) for SMBs. Fortinet claims Coyote Point's products, which (like F5's) rely on a proprietary OS, complement its core FortiGate unified threat management security hardware, as well as its firewall and denial-of-service appliances. The purchase comes as F5, which sells to enterprises and carriers in addition to SMBs, launches firewall hardware, as well as security modules for its ADCs.

Bernstein's Mark Moerdler defends Citrix (CTXS-5.9%) in the wake of Oracle's (ORCL) acquisition of Xsigo. Moerdler notes Citrix's NetScaler switches are more complementary than competitive to Xsigo's gear (ed: NetScaler competes more with F5's solutions). An Oracle presentation (.pdf) explaining the deal focuses on Xsigo's ability to eliminate the need to manually connect individual servers with networking and storage resources. This leads The Register to wonder if more networking acquisitions are in the cards. (also)

IDC thinks the rapid growth of the market for WAN optimization gear, used to improve Internet access speeds for remote offices, could make market leader Riverbed (RVBD) an acquisition target this year, in spite of its $4.5B market cap. FFIV and AKAM are also seen as buyout targets. Riverbed recently bought the assets of smaller rival Expand Networks.

F5 Networks (FFIV), which fell hard during the market's decline before rallying on a Friday upgrade, is acquiring the assets of rival Crescendo Networks. Crescendo has been a thorn in F5's side, and acquiring the company's FPGA chip technology could allow F5 to more quickly support new protocols and feature sets in its switches.

F5 Networks Inc provides Application Delivery Networking (ADN) technology that secures and optimizes the delivery of network-based applications and the security, performance and availability of servers, and other network resources.